Equilibrium swelling and mechanical properties of hydrogels of acrylamide and itaconic acid or its esters

The equilibrium swelling and the plateau elastic modulus of a family of hyd rogels made by the polymerization of acrylamide with itaconic acid or some of its esters were investigated as a function of composition and crosslinki ng degree to find materials with satisfactory swelling and elastic properti es. We show that an appropriate selection of the comonomers and the concent ration of the crosslinking agent is very important to produce hydrogels wit h large swelling capacity and good mechanical attributes. Tailoring of mech anical properties and swelling can also be achieved by this method.